Germany vs. Elsevier: universities win temporary free journal access

Re:Germany vs. Elsevier: universities win temporary free jou... by semi-extrinsic on Friday January 05, 2018 @10:35AM (#16079205)

I don't think Elsevier see SciHub as the biggest threat. No, the biggest threat is that now the EU has told researchers "You have to publish OA", researchers have two options: publish preprints of everything, or start paying Elsevier loads of cash. Obviously everyone is now starting to do the first option (usually via institutional repos, which at least Google Scholar indexes). And people are finding it to be a good low-effort system.

Elsevier lost when they agreed to allow people (mostly just some people in math and physics back then) to post preprints online.

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Re:Germany vs. Elsevier: universities win temporary free jou... by Vinnl on Friday January 05, 2018 @10:44AM (#16079272)

I think you are overestimating the system. Researchers are going for the second option in large droves, as that's the one that helps their career forward, and it's often not their own money they're paying with.

If you're interested, I've written about why they're forced to do so at [1] and [2]. (And the reason I'm following it so closely is because I'm trying to fix it - if you want to follow that, see [3].)

[1] https://medium.com/flockademic/the-vicious-cycle-of-scholarl...

[2] https://medium.com/flockademic/the-ridiculous-number-that-ca...

[3] https://tinyletter.com/Flockademic

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Re:Germany vs. Elsevier: universities win temporary free jou... by kurthr on Friday January 05, 2018 @11:58AM (#16079745)

Well, it's not their own money (to spend on coke and whores), but typically those are still their research funds so they have to make a decision as to whether to publish or buy new equipment, supplies, or get another TA/RA position. Often the funds are pre-loaded with overhead for the department so it's more expensive than it appears.

Indexed preprints make a whole lot of sense, if they'll let you do it.

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Re:Germany vs. Elsevier: universities win temporary free jou... by Vinnl on Saturday January 06, 2018 @03:46AM (#16084440)

Well, to some extent. If it's their own research funds, they will have to consider what's better for their career, and often, that publication will win over new equipment, for example.

That said, there are often funds available from e.g. the library, your funder, or even nationwide funds such as in the Netherlands and I think the UK, that will cover the costs of making articles available as open access. It's pretty much a no-brainer to use them for researchers.

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Re:Germany vs. Elsevier: universities win temporary free jou... by dagw on Friday January 05, 2018 @11:19AM (#16079496)

Obviously everyone is now starting to do the first option

Not in my experience or at least no exclusively. A lot of researchers are paying for open access. Sure they all grumble about it and think it's a stupid system, but since it's neither their money nor in many cases their decision, they still do it.

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